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Members

Candi Harrison (Co-Chair)Departmental Web Manager for FieldOperationsOffice of Departmental Operations andCoordinationDepartment of Housing and UrbanDevelopment

Sheila Campbell (Co-Chair)Senior Content Manager, FirstGovGeneral Services Administration

Nancy AllardLead Archives Specialist, Policy andCommunications StaffNational Archives and Records Administration

Alice BettencourtCo-Manager, Web Management TeamDepartment of Health and Human Services

Dave BorowskiInternet Program Manager, Office of the CIODepartment of Treasury

Annetta CheekPlain Language CoordinatorFederal Aviation Administration

Policies and Guidelines for Federal Public Websites: ICGIReport Attachments

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From Recommended Policies and Guidelines for Federal Public Websites: Final Report ofthe Interagency Committee on Government InformationSubmitted to the Office of Management and BudgetJune 9, 2004

Attachments

A. ICGI Web Content Standards Working Group and AdvisorsB. DefinitionsC. Vetting ListD. Establishing a Federal Public Website Inventory, Priorities, andPublication Schedule (and Worksheets)

Attachment AInteragency Council on Government Information Web Content Standards WorkingGroup

Working Group Members and AdvisorsExecutive Sponsor: Beverly Godwin, Director, FirstGov Operations [now USA.gov], GeneralServices Administration

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Terry DavisManager, Office of Secretary of DefensePublic Web ProgramDepartment of Defense

Kate DonohueCo-Web Manager, Web Communications ServicesOffice of Public AffairsDepartment of Labor

Karen DrayneContent SpecialistWeb Services Staff, Justice ManagementDivisionDepartment of Justice

Brian DunbarInternet Services ManagerMedia Services Division, Office of Public AffairsNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

Sam GallagherDepartmental Web Manager for HeadquartersOperationsOffice of Departmental Operations andCoordinationDepartment of Housing and UrbanDevelopment

Colleen HopeDirector, Office of Electronic InformationBureau of Public AffairsU.S. Department of State

Gwynne KostinDirector, Web ContentDepartment of Homeland Security

Julia LawsDivision Director, Information ManagementDepartment of Interior

Jeffrey LevySenior Web Advisor, Office of Public AffairsEnvironmental Protection Agency

Bernie LubranProject Manager, Federal Consulting GroupDepartment of Treasury

Suzanne NawrotIT Specialist (Web Manager), CorporateSystems Division Chief Information OfficerDepartment of Energy

Jennifer ReevesIT Specialist, Development Services GroupOffice of the CIODepartment of Education

Janet StevensWebsite Project ManagerRisk Management AgencyDepartment of Agriculture

Martha (Marti) SzczurDeputy Associate Director for SpecializedInformation Services National Library of MedicineDepartment of Health and Human Services

Keith ThurstonAssistant Deputy Associate AdministratorOffice of Electronic GovernmentGeneral Services Administration

Alan Vander MallieWeb ManagerCommerce Web Advisory GroupDepartment of Commerce

Advisors

Joan BryanWeb Content ManagerSocial Security Administration

Tom FreebairnUSA ServicesGeneral Services Administration (common contentmodels)

Sanjay KoyaniDepartment of Health and HumanServices (usability)

Joanne McGovernSenior Content SpecialistFirstGov [now USA.gov]General Services Administration (liaison to otherworking groups)

John MurphyDirectorE-Gov Solutions, General ServicesAdministration (search technology)

Janice NallOffice of Government-wide Policy, General ServicesAdministration (usability, content standards)

Russell O'NeillGeneral Services Administration (ITstandards)

Gina PearsonEconomic Research ServiceDepartment of Agriculture (usability)

Helen SavoyeDeputy Web Manager

Kim TaylorDirector of Web Services

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Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment (IT)

Department of Agriculture (IT)

Carlynn ThompsonDirector, Component InformationSupportDefense Technical InformationCenterDepartment of Defense (technicalstandards and policies)

James VaughnUSA Services Program ManagerGeneral Services Administration (customer service)

Tricia WellmanSenior AttorneyOffice of Information and PrivacyDepartment of Justice (e-FOIA)

Michael WhiteNational Archives and Records Administration (U.S.Government Manual)

Attachment BInteragency Council on Government Information Web Content Standards WorkingGroup

DefinitionsThe following are definitions for terms used in this report.

Agency: An organizational unit of the executive branch that is any of the following:

A member of the cabinet;A major subdivision of a cabinet agency. For example

In the Department of the Interior: the Bureau of Land Management, the NationalPark Service, and the Office of Surface Mining, among othersIn the Department of Defense: major components such as the military departments,the defense agencies, and the field activities.

An independent agency, such asThe Central Intelligence AgencyThe Advisory Council on Historic PreservationThe Federal Deposit Insurance CorporationThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Any other organizational unit OMB designates as an organization for the purposes ofweb content management.

Alternative Formats: Web file formats that are not universally accessible, but areavailable to the public via specific software or plug-ins. These formats include, but are notlimited to: Portable Document Formats (PDF), WordPerfect, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, andstatistical data files, such as SAS, SPSS, SQL, and MS Excel.

Content: Any material that is available on a federal public website.

Cross-Agency Portal: A website that brings together information and services frommultiple federal agencies or organizations about a particular topic or for a particularaudience group.

Document: A file provided on a website that contains text, such as pages, text files, wordprocessing files, and spreadsheet files.

Domain Names: Web addresses that are used to help people find websites on theInternet. Domain names are made up of a hierarchy known as levels, which are separatedby periods (".") within the domain name. Top-level domains include domains such as.gov, .mil., .us, .org, .com., and .edu. Examples of a federal organization's domain nameare army.mil, noaa.gov and publicdebt.treas.gov.

Extranet: A public-private website or portal, secured or password-protected, specificallydesigned for selected workers in an organization and selected external partners to conductinternal business.

Federal Public Website: Any website that meets these three criteria:

Is funded and sponsored entirely by a federal executive branch agency or organization;Presents official government information, andIs available to the public without passwords or log-ins.

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Homepage: The page that serves as the front door of a website. Every website has ahomepage. No website has more than one homepage.

Industry Standard Web Formats: Web file formats that are universally accessible toanyone with a web browser, which do not require specific software or plug-ins. HTML andXML are current examples of industry standard formats.

Intranet: A private website or portal, secured or password-protected, specifically designedfor workers in an organization to conduct internal business.

Major Entry Point: Pages that are frequently accessed directly by the public. Major entrypoints include:

An organization's homepage;The root of the level right below the homepage (for example,http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ and http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues);The pages submitted in response to the Department of Justice Bi-Annual Survey for theReview of Agency Implementation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; andAny other page that website statistics indicate is most often visited, bookmarked, orlinked to by website visitors.

Navigation: The means by which a visitor can navigate the content of a website.Navigation usually consists of a collection of links to sections and subsections of a website.

Organization and Federal Organization: Any entity of a federal executive branchagency, at any level of the agency-for example, any department, agency, bureau,division, office, program, or other organizational unit.

Page: A text file at a single URL, written or generated in a markup language like HTML,and viewed through a browser. For the purpose of these policies, pages do include PDFsbut do not include pop-up windows, dialog windows, files that provide text descriptions ofnon-text content to enhance accessibility (d-links), redirection pages, or slides within apresentation, except where otherwise noted.

Second-Level Domain Name: A website address that is at the next highest level of thehierarchy below the top-level domains of .gov and .mil, such as hud.gov, fbi.gov,regulations.gov, or army.mil. It includes all websites registered through the officialGovernment Domain Registry (including domain names in the .fed.us domain), and allwebsites registered through the Department of Defense .mil registry. It does not includewebsites considered to be third-level domains, such as nmfs.noaa.gov orwww.publicdebt.treas.gov.

Site Map: A linked, graphic or text-based display of a website's hierarchy, similar to anorganization chart. Typically, site maps break down a website's content into increasinglyspecific subject areas to help the visitor understand its structure, from the mainnavigation pages to their subordinate pages. The main difference between a site map anda subject index is that a subject index is typically an alphabetical list, not a hierarchicallystructured set of links.

Subject Index: A list of a website's content, typically presented in alphabetical order,similar to an index in the back of a book. The main difference between a subject indexand a site map is that a site map conveys website structure or navigation.

Usability: The measure of the quality of a visitor's experience when using a website,including the ability to accomplish basic tasks.

Web Content Manager: Federal employees who write, edit, manage, and form strategicplans for the content of federal websites.

Website: A collection of web content organized under a single homepage.

Attachment CInteragency Council on Government Information Web Content Standards WorkingGroup

Vetting ListThe following groups and individuals were invited to provide feedback on the draftrecommendations developed by the Web Content Standards Working Group in April 2004.

Federal Web Content Managers ForumCIO Council

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Public Affairs OfficersAgency Webmasters and IT SpecialistsE-Gov Initiative Program ManagersWeb Managers within Working Group member agenciesPublic Domain Directory Working GroupOther ICGI working groups and sub-groups (Electronic Records Policy Working Groupand Categorization of Information Working Group)Legislative Branch agencies (Government Printing Office and Library of Congress)CENDI (Commerce, Energy, NASA, Defense Information Managers Group)USA Services Advocates (agencies involved in customer relationship management)Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC)American Library AssociationSelected experts with interest in E-Gov, specifically Gerry McGovern, Pew Foundation,Council for Excellence in GovernmentIndustry Advisory Council

The initial draft recommendations have also been posted on the ICGI website.

Attachment DInteragency Council on Government Information Web Content Standards WorkingGroup

Establishing a federal public website inventory and publication priorities

Here is a simple 3-step process that can help you meet the requirements of Section207(f)(2) of the E-Government Act of 2002. It will help you decide what should be onyour website-both now and in the future-and help you set publication priorities.

Just follow the steps and keep this in mind: If it can be public, and is of interest to thepublic, it should be public. Agencies dealing with national defense and law enforcementshould weigh security needs as well as the public's need to know.

Step 1: Determine your audiences

Worksheet 1: List all the audiences who do, should, and might visit your website.Determine the potential size of those audiences.Think about audiences in the broadest sense, for example, business partner groups,client groups, media, elected officials, librarians and researchers, international visitors,senior citizens, students, children, parents, teachers, and so forth. And-of course-besure to list "citizens" as an important audience group.Note your list on Worksheet 1.

Step 2: Develop your inventory

Use Worksheet 2 to create your inventory. List the audience groups you defined in Step1 down the left side of the matrix, and list the various components of yourorganization or organization across the top.Complete the matrix by answering two questions: What does this audience group wantto know from this part of our organization? What does this part of our organizationneed to tell this audience group? List broad categories of information, such as pressreleases, budget documents, and publications.Include both content that currently exists on your website and content that shouldexist on your website.Make sure you address common requests. Look at customer questions from email,focus groups, phone calls, and surveys. Look at your search logs to identify informationvisitors to your website have sought. Talk to people who answer the telephones or actas desk receptionists.

Step 3: Set priorities

Use Worksheet 3 to help you set priorities.In column 1, list all the content items you identified as your inventory, on Worksheet 2.In column 2, note whether the information or services already exists on the website,exists in some form but is not on the website, or has to be developed (to determine a

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Audiences Organization Components or Program Areas

general Level of Effort).In column 3, note whether the information is:

Priority 1: required by law, regulation, Presidential directive, or other officialdirective or to ensure national securityPriority 2: mission-critical and essential for program operations, but not required bylaw, regulation, or Presidential directive (i.e.-information or services that are directlytied to your mission and/or strategic plan)Priority 3: frequently requested information or services that would improveorganization business processes and/or customer service to the public (e.g. mostcommonly used forms, documents, applications, transactions, etc.).Priority 4: other information

Some inventory items may fall into more than one priority. Assign them the highestpriority.In column 4, assign a publication target for every inventory item that is not alreadyposted on the website. Clearly the content at the highest priority levels should betargeted first. But also look for opportunities to post content that already exists inanother format that could be easily converted for web use, particularly if that contentwill improve customer service. We suggest grouping content into 3 target categories: 1year out, 2 years out, and 3 years out, but you may want to add more.Be sure that, as you assign a publication target, you have the resources to meet thattarget.

Developing an inventory, priorities, and publication schedule for federal websites

Worksheet 1: Define your website audiences

List the different audience groups that might use your website. Think about the groupsthat you want to target and about the groups who might just end up at your website.Look at your email. Think about citizen groups, business groups, and other governmentorganizations.

1. Citizens as a whole2.3.4.and so on

Developing and inventory, priorities, and publication schedule for federal websites

Worksheet 2: Develop your inventory of information/services for the website

Down the left, list the audience groups you identified on Worksheet 1.At the top of each column, list the components of your organization or program areas.Fill in each box by answering two questions: What does this audience group want toknow from this component? What does this component want to tell this audiencegroup?

Developing an inventory, priorities, and publication schedule for federal websites

Worksheet 3: Set priorities and publication targets

In column 1, list all the content items you identified as your inventory, on Worksheet 2.In column 2, note whether this information is on the website currently (C), exists insome form but is not on the website (E), or has to be developed (D).In column 3, note whether the information is:

Priority 1: required by law, regulation, Presidential directive, or other official

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Content Status Priority Publication Target

directive or national security.Priority 2: mission-critical and essential for program operations, but not required bylaw, regulation, or Presidential directive (i.e.-information or services that are directlytied to your mission and/or strategic plan)Priority 3: frequently requested information or services that would improveorganization business processes and/or customer service to the public (e.g. mostcommonly used forms, documents, applications, transactions, etc.).Priority 4: other information

Some inventory items may fall into more than one priority. Assign them the highestpriority.In column 4, assign a publication target for every inventory item that is not alreadyposted on the website.

Read the Summary and Background of ICGI Report.

Read the Recommendations of ICGI Report.

Content Lead: Rachel Flagg Page Reviewed/Updated: August 16, 2012

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